Procure Plus Arms Wigan and Leigh Trainees with Tools for Success

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A total of 13 trainees in Wigan Borough have been supplied with toolkits for their respective trades, valued at £250 each, by social housing procurement consortium, Procure Plus.

The first local trainees to receive the kits, and benefit from the support of the North West supply chain solution provider, have been recruited by three regional contractors conducting the works for a recently launched £40 million bathroom regeneration project for Wigan and Leigh Housing, which manages and maintains Wigan Council’s 22,000 homes in the Wigan and Leigh area.

Owning the tools necessary to complete their daily work will ensure each trainee can perform efficiently and progress to further stages of development with greater ease than the many UK apprentices who are often required to supply their own costly equipment.

The recruits – a mix of plumbers, decorators, plasterers and electricians - will help deliver the project by 2018 using the toolkits and will receive ongoing training and guidance from Procure Plus.

Partnering with local organisations, Procure Plus will continue work with the Wigan and Leigh Housing as well as materials suppliers to create at least a further eight entry level roles across the community for those struggling to begin, or resume, work in the construction sector.

Once the four year bathroom regeneration initiative is completed, trainees recruited via the scheme with be further supported into permanent roles in their local area ensuring the skills learned as part of this project are strengthened further.

Fiona Sharp, head of regeneration at Procure Plus, said: “Many apprentices are unable to purchase their own tools when they start work due to their cost. Lack of tools is clearly a hindrance to anyone working on a building site, and so those new to the trades are forced to start on the back foot and delay their progression through no fault of their own, so we are determined to prevent this potential setback wherever we can.

“Our commitment to regenerating local communities doesn’t stop once our contractors have their trainees through the door. We supply all tradespeople employed via our schemes with the tools necessary for the best start in what we hope will be a long and rewarding career.”

Trevor Smith, group manager for planned works at Wigan and Leigh Housing, said: “We have undertaken a number of improvement projects on our homes with the help of Procure Plus, the most recent of which is our new £40 million bathroom regeneration scheme. This will see the two organisations working together to give our tenants high-quality fixtures and fittings for bathrooms that meet their individual needs. Crucially, the project will enable us to create at least 21 new apprenticeships in the area.

“Over the past few years we have completely transformed our housing for our residents, but we have more work to do to make sure we continue to provide top notch homes for people in our area. Our work with Procure Plus means that we can easily achieve this, while at the same time contributing in a real way to sustainable job creation in our local community.”